The following standard information is available whenever you first see a stock quote

Current Trading PriceBid PriceAsk Price

Bid Price - this is the price offered for the stock in the market.

Ask Price - this is the price that someone who holds this stock is willing to sell it for.

The stock price quote shows also shows the most recent price relative to the prior day's closing price and the percentage change in price from the prior trading day.

For example looking at Google's stock you should see this type of information:

GOOG

Latest Price - 622.87

Change - +4.39

% Change - +.71%

Days High - 625.99

Days Low - 618.48

Volume 1,698,015

Let see what we can read from this information

1. Google (GOOG) is currently trading at 622.87 / share.

2. This is $4.39 or .71% more than the price at which it closed on the previous trading day.

3. The stock traded at a high of 625.99 and a low of 618.48 which means the trading range was 7.51.

4. 1,698,015 shares were traded.

Is this helpful information?

You bet it is- here's why

You can formulate good information from the numbers. For example - Is the trading range pretty close to other trading ranges? Then the stock may be trading sideways. Is the range higher than normal? Could it be that there is some sort of trend reversal happening?

Is the volume greater than the average volume? is it lower? greater volume may point toward bullish activity while lower volume may trend toward bearish activity. You don't jump to conclusions based on just this information alone, but you can begin building your information as to whether you should trade Google or not.

Historical Stock Price Information

In addition to the information mentioned above - you can find historical information like the 52 week high and low, as well as the previous close and the day's opening price.

52 Week High and Low - This is the highest and lowest selling price for the stock over the previous 52 weeks.

Previous Close - This is the price the stock closed at the previous trading day.

Opening Price - This is the price the stock opened at on the current trading day.

This is a lot of information.

Is it important? Yes it is!

Close examination of historical stock price information provides a glimpse of the following:

Whether or not the current stock quote is at or near a high point for the day or year.Whether or not the current stock quote is at or near a low point for the day or year.Whether or not the stock's price has been rising during the current trading session.Whether or not the stock's price is higher or lower than the prior day's closing price.

By understanding the historical price information relative to the Online Stock quote price, we can - at a glance - get a good feel for where the stock is trading relative to the recent and distant past.